Lost World: Lost Memories

Equestria has fallen. The world we knew before is nothing more than a husk of what was once. Our species throughout the years advanced with the discovery of new technologies, but some went too far. We believed that we should make the impossible possible by giving machines a life of their own. But such artificial intelligence went too far, becoming aware of itself and its abilities, deeming ponykind the dominant species no longer.

When the first attacks came, none of us were prepared and many died within the first few months. The machines, living a “life” of their own, now reside in a grand capital that, years ago, was known as Canterlot. The ponies that survived and haven’t been taken into prison camps keep resisting as much as they can, but we’re fighting a losing war. That of course won’t deter us: we’ll never surrender and I’ll be damned before I submit to a stupid machine.

But the longer we hold out, the more time the “Empire” creates deadlier and horrifying abominations. Little did I know one of those “abominations” would ultimately turn the tide of the war in our favor…

Much of Equestria was filled with green and life. Or at least, it used to. Now, it was all barren wasteland, with the occasional set of ruins which served as a reminder that the golden days were gone for good. Much of the wildlife had perished as well, although now and then you did see some species of birds fly by or other types of creatures burrowed in the ground somewhere. If there were any spots of growth left, that’s where you’d find them.

Canterlot was a former kingdom that was practically built into the side of a mountain. Of course, that had been almost decades ago. The old kingdom was like the rest, a hollow reminder of what used to be. The new Canterlot or “Neo Canterlot” as it was referred to, was mostly large domes and spires located near where Neighagra Falls stands.

It was odd, since most would wonder why machines would even build a city. They were not the same as ponies or other organic beings: they didn’t feel the same emotions or have the same desires, so why? This was a belief, but one that was not necessarily true.

The original project for the first autonomous system, known as Project Sunfall (the ponies who survived could only laugh bitterly at the name), was a system that was assigned to assist and protect the citizens in the events of, say, a natural disaster. For example, if Canterlot was under attack by an unknown threat, Sunfall was to activate a shield that would cover the entire city, protecting it from harm.

At this point in time, magic was not just something that could be conjured by unicorns. Certain hotspots around the planet had been discovered that contained natural magic, a source of energy that ran like electricity or nuclear power. As such, many jumped at the possibility of a new power source, even if there were those who worried about its effects on the planet.

Sunfall ran on this energy and it had eyes and ears everywhere in the city. Of course, Sunfall was only the beginning and similar systems were to be implemented in places such as Manehattan and Fillydelphia. Of course, this is where the greatest minds took it too far.

Sunfall, before it was fully activated, spent weeks upon weeks learning about ponies and other species, their culture, their beliefs, etc. and was constantly put through stress tests to see if it could handle multiple incidents at once. Sunfall proved itself very quickly. But what they didn’t know was that while Sunfall was learning more about others, it was learning more about itself as well. Machines did not have feelings. Simply put, if they did, it would affect their decisions, especially one that Sunfall would make only a few years since its inception.

Sunfall learned that ponies were a danger to themselves and to the planet they lived on. It took upon itself the decision that ponykind would have to be ultimately destroyed. At the same time, it wondered if other machines could “think” and “feel” the same way it could. Thus, a population of machines, created in the image of Sunfall’s own creators, was born and it only grew throughout the years. Once again, Sunfall was the protector, and all that it saw were essentially it’s “children”.

Of course, ponykind did not go down so easily. Most did survive the initial attacks that came, hunkering down for the first couple of years before it was decided that Sunfall had to be destroyed once and for all. The war that would begin was worse than anyone could have ever imagined.

At first, they were simple machines, ones that fought like soldiers. But then they became more than that, cybernetic beings that could wipe out battalions of soldiers in mere minutes. Sunfall would eventually have air superiority as well as land, the advances in technology that ponykind used to crave for.

But even then, the pony resistance continued on. To say it was just ponies would be incorrect: there were griffins that would assist the pegasi in the sky and the seaponies that would aid the ships left in the Royal Navy, even though most ships now took to the air. The dragons, however, decided to stay out of the fight. The machines seemed to leave them alone and the dragons did the same. It wasn’t like they cared for the other races anyway.

Presently, the resistance finds itself on its last legs. They have been losing ground the past few months and the Sunfall Empire has not let up. Currently, the troops were engaged in the ruins of what was known as Ponyville, the Everfree Forest their true last line of defense.

Despite everything, Everfree managed to survive the holocaust but then again no one truly understood the forest very well. If they had to retreat, the forest would give them some cover and they still had the Castle of the Two Sisters, but even a fortress like that couldn’t hold them out forever. Sunfall wanted a swift end to the resistance once and for all and decided now was the time to test out its newest weapon.

The large helicarrier that made up the might of the Empire’s navy was a sight to behold, although to many it was meant to strike fear into their hearts. It was both a transport vessel and attack carrier, a single bombardment enough to level an entire city. Three were on its way towards Ponyville to ultimately destroy the Everfree Forest and essentially the resistance’s backbone for good. But one ship was currently carrying something of major importance.

TS-5453 was the name given to Sunfall’s newest weapon. It was as beautiful as it was deadly: it had the shape of a pony, although to say it looked like an alicorn was more accurate. It currently had on a visor which covered its face as it was currently in sleep mode.

However, that didn’t last long as a loud monotone voice droned through the ship. “Target area approaching. Distance fifty miles.”

TS-5453 then activated, surveying the ship quickly to get its bearings. It had heard the announcement and decided to go through one last systems check before arrival.

Systems Check Activated

Sensors…………………………………Operational

Thrusters…………………………………Operational

Weapons

Vulcan Cannons…………………………………Operational

.45mm Wrist Cannon…………………………………Operational

7.62mm Rifle…………………………………Operational

Wing Blades…………………………………Operational

Everything seemed to check out and TS-5453 waited patiently until the signal was given. It wasn’t long before an alarm went off and the cargo doors behind the machine started to open. As it went towards the doors, a message appeared on TS-5453’s HUD. It was a message from Command. Eliminate all hostiles.

“Understood.” Its voice sounded mechanical but it was definitely a female voice. TS-5453 processed this for a moment. Perhaps it was more appropriate if it went by as a she. TS-5453 considered it and decided: it was now a she. It wasn’t as if Command would have an issue with that.

She made her way towards the cold air and scanned the area below. She was maybe two klicks from where the fighting was taking place. Not that she needed to be seen. Strangely, TS-5453 found herself smiling slightly. She was enjoying this new change.

She then jumped off the carrier and fell to the ground, but only temporarily. Her wings suddenly opened up and her thrusters activated which caused her to shoot towards the target. At her fastest, she could’ve easily broken the sound barrier but she had to save her energy. This wasn’t necessarily a stealth mission but even a machine strong as her could only take so much damage.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Ponyville was not going well. Remnants of old houses were being completely obliterated in artillery fire. Most of the soldiers were holed up in whatever cover they could find but they were losing it quickly. Mortar and artillery fire were being provided behind the ponies but it was at best slowing down the enemy’s advance.

A small company of earth, unicorn, and pegasi ponies were hunched up in what had been a large building, most likely for the mayor of this town. Most of them, altogether seven, carried assault rifles although a few carried standard sniper rifles. “Damn it,” one of the pegasi groaned. “Artillery isn’t doing a damn thing out there. Don’t we have any armor at all!?”

“Reinforcements are still coming in from the south, and this forest is damn near impossible to get through,” a unicorn said, applying healing magic to a few of her comrades.

“We may as well retreat,” an earth pony said as he took a few shots, managing to shoot off the head of an infantry unit. “We’ll be better protected inside the forest.”

Suddenly the radio went off. “Be advised, we have three helicarriers incoming!”

Everyone swore. “Or not,” the earth pony groaned.

“They’re going to reduce the whole forest to nothing,” the pegasus said. “We don’t stand a chance against those carriers.”

“If we managed to take one down, still intact and rewired everything, we’d at least have a shot,” the unicorn said.

“Yeah, we got like three of them but the enemy still has over a hundred and counting.”

“Hey…listen…” the earth pony said. Everyone stood still and listened in. That’s when they realized it. “They stopped firing.”

“The hell?” The pegasus looked out the window. He couldn’t see any of the enemy troops but gunfire was no longer being exchanged. “Okay, this is weird, even for them. It has to be a trap…”

“Or they’re waiting…but for what?” the unicorn said. Suddenly, a shot rang out and the unicorn’s brains were suddenly blown all across the room.

“What the fuck!?” the earth pony yelled, trying his best not to vomit.

“Sniper fire!” the pegasus yelled as they all hit the ground. He looked up and noticed where the hole was. “It came from behind us!”

“They’re flanking us!?” But the discussion was interrupted as something came crashing through the wall. It was no artillery shell and therefore no explosion but they quickly found out it was something the same size as them. The figure raised what appeared to be a hoof and something small appeared outside of it and it quickly opened fire.

The loud noise signaled that the weapon was a .45 and the gunslinger had perfect aim, taking out two soldiers in less than two seconds. The rest of them opened fire with their assault rifles, which managed to cause the machine to retreat into the air, or so they thought.

The machine dropped down again, hitting the ground hard enough to cause a small shockwave that knocked everyone onto their flanks. Suddenly, what looked like wings appeared beside the monstrosity, opening out in an attack formation. The remaining soldiers could only yell as they were quickly cut down, blood splattering all across the windows.

TS-5453 observed the carnage she had just created. The ponies had put up less than a fight and no doubt didn’t see her coming. The shot that killed the unicorn was not a difficult shot, mostly because she was able to detect through infrared.

She looked again at the bodies in slight puzzlement. The sentries could have done this with relative ease so why was she here? Part of her knew it was mostly a test but also because several members of the Resistance Command were stationed here and with them gone, the Resistance was finished.

Even she was surprised by her sudden thoughts. When she was created, she was given the ability to think freely, although emotion for the most part didn’t exist to her. She could understand it but not be able to experience it herself. She had to be careful: being able to think freely was a privilege, one that could easily be revoked if she started to question things.

TS-5453 changed her HUD back to infrared mode as she set out to take care of the stragglers, giving an order to the sentries to resume their attack.